The elevator doors inch open, a faint glow spilling from the interior. I squint as three men fan out in formation. Graham—he’s all wiry muscles, as opposed to Austin’s bulk and Ry’s…mountain-like silhouette—heads straight for me. Less than a minute later, he has the cell door open. “Want to get out of here, Lois?”
“Hell, yes.”
He holds out his hand, and I take it, letting him pull me forward until the men surround me.
“Put these on.” Graham helps me with a pair of night-vision goggles, and I cry out as the rubber eye cup hits the fresh burn on my cheek. “Shit. Sorry.”
“One to ten, Lois. How bad is the pain? Honesty this time,” Ry says.
“Six.”
He makes a low, frustrated sound. “Jimmy, get her out of here.”
“No. Trevor’s in bad shape. I’m not leaving him.” I hold out my hand, staring at Graham through the goggles that make the world glow green. “Hand it over, Jimmy.”
He looks to Ry, then pulls a Beretta from his vest. “Don’t make me regret this.”
I haven’t fired a gun in ten years, but some things you never forget. Like the hours my dad—my real dad, the one who adopted me and never once looked back—spent teaching me how to shoot. “I won’t.”
Ryker sweeps his gaze over the other cells. In Spanish, he calls out, “We’re putting an end to the Crypt tonight. In two hours, the Democrática Resistencia will liberate you all.”
A chorus of cheers follows, and Ry nods. “Let’s go get our boy back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Trevor
“Find out what is going on,”Ochoa spits out. A beam of light pierces the darkness, and one of the guards snatches the pen away from me before the three of them leave the room. The door locks, leaving nothing but pitch black around me. A moment later, a loud alarm starts blaring at regular intervals.
I trained for this. Too many years ago, but some things you never forget. My fingers are still stiff after so long in the freezing cold, but I pry the pin open and start to work on my handcuffs. Twice, I drop the medal, and to retrieve it, I have to feel around blindly until the sharp point digs into my palm.
But after the longest minutes of my life, the cuffs clatter to the ground. Now to get out of this room and find Dani.
My legs cramp constantly as I inch towards the door, but I force my body to ignore the pain. I’d crawl through fire for Dani, and now that I know we’re not alone, I can endure anything if it means we have a chance to be together again.
On my knees, I fumble for the lock and get to work. With my hands free, I’m faster, and the door opens almost silently. The two times I’ve been to this level, I’ve never seen anyone else, but that doesn’t mean it’s empty.
Staccato bursts of low, almost muffled sounds echo from above me. Gunfire. I have to find Dani and get the fuck out of here before there’s more blood on my conscience. My family’s blood. I don’t know who’s here with her, but it doesn’t matter if it’s West, Graham, Ford, or Ryker. Or anyone else from Hidden Agenda or Second Sight. They’re all family.
Using the wall for support, I close my eyes and clench my jaw, then push myself up. My quads and hamstrings feel like they’re tearing into a thousand pieces, and my eyes water, but I’m standing for the first time since they locked me in that frigid cell.
“You can do this. One foot in front of the other.”
Three times, I fall. But I get back up. I have to find Dani. The guards and Ochoa aren’t anywhere around, so there’s a stairwell somewhere. In the pitch darkness, I have to rely on my other senses, and I feel along the wall, finding a window, another locked door right next to it, and then a second window. In another six steps, I’m at the end of the hall, and then a door next to me bursts open, sending my heartbeat skyrocketing.
“About damn time.” Ryker. His voice shouldn’t shock me. This is what he does. But we’ve barely talked since all the shit went down with Ripper and Cara. He only said half a dozen words to me at the wedding. I never expectedhimto lead the rescue team.
Yet, he’s the one who catches me when my legs give out, and if I thought he’d let me, I’d hug him. I’m so damn overwhelmed that he’d risk his team breaking into the most notorious prison in the Southern Hemisphere, I don’t know what to say.
“Relax, superman. We’ll do the work from here.” He claps his hand on my shoulder and holds on for the briefest of moments before passing me to another set of strong arms.
“Superman?”
“Just go with it,” Austin says as he shifts me so he can still hold a gun. “We were running out of characters.”
Somewhere close, I can sense Dani, and I look around blindly, needing to know she’s okay.
“Can it. Gotta find Rojas, then we can get the fuck out of here,” Ry says. “Gear him up and let’s go.”
